We Van Haaftens had some adventures this year. During the summer Jenn's brother reserved a cabin for all of Jenn's side of the family to stay and visit with each other. Five cousins got to connect, ranging in age from 14 to just over 1.5. Alice read many a Frozen story to her cousins, even though Frozen is her least favorite thing in the world. The littlest cousin would grab the tablet from Will and state "Done," because he wanted Will to stop playing on the tablet and start playing with him. The littlest cousin was joined by an even littler cousin in August. Jenn went up to her brother's in September to "help" out, but really it was just an excuse to play with the little baby boy and his adorable big brother.
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Having never been to Orlando as a family, we took some time off around Thanksgiving and flew down to find out what all the fuss was about. Our first two days were a trip to Universal Studios, both parks, to see both Harry Potter experiences. Though we had a rocky start with a broken down Gringotts ride, the rest of our visit in Universal Studios was a good time. Harry Potter and the Forbidden Journey was amazing, we enjoyed a visit to Honeydukes and waving a wand around the area to make magic. We also liked other portions of the park, including Jurassic Park, the Return of the Mummy ride, the MIB shooter ride and the Minion and Shrek experiences. Despite rainy weather, we hit Legoland and enjoyed that a lot. We also made a trip to the Magic Kingdom. We tried as many experiences as we could, but there was a lot of waiting and the rides we wanted to go on were very, very long. I had always hoped that our first Disney experience would be as magical as some of our friends seemed to find it, but maybe the kids were too big or it was too close to Thanksgiving and too crowded. By far, everyone liked the choices in Universal Studios better. The kids were most happy with the day we spent swimming in the hotel pool and perhaps as a family we would just appreciate a beach, or water play or some time in nature best.
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Besides some nice trips, we were all busy this year.
Joel had built such a nice coop and run last year, this spring Jenn picked up two Maran and two silver-laced Wyandotte chicks. They borrowed a tank set up to raise baby chicks and brought the chickens up to adulthood. They thought they had four hens, but one started to crow. A LOT. Turned out one of the Marans was a rooster. Fortunately a family friend needed a rooster on his farm, since roosters aren't allowed in the city limits. With him crowing at 5 am, Jenn understands why. They are probably the right kind of pet for our family. Alice loved raising them from babies and giving them names. Joel and Jenn like the idea of getting eggs, even though they might be the most expensive free range eggs they could get. Jenn likes that she's connecting with her family's farming past in some small way. Willem likes that he can ignore them. Alice, Jenn, and Joel like to see them run out and cluck at us when we go out to visit. We've created a portable run to move them around the yard for insects and green grass in the summer. They are fun and have such personalities.
Alice: She finished fifth grade and elementary school this year, moving on to middle school for sixth grade. She still loves playing soccer and enjoys her travel team, both last spring and this fall. She is a tough cookie and is not afraid of the big girls towering over her. Alice continues to play French horn and does it fairly well, getting a solo here and there. She also joined archery club at the middle school. She still loves art class, but also likes her math and science too. She will start an on-line reading project this coming semester.
Will: Finished 8th grade and the middle school with a culminating 8th grade promotion. He is taking a full load of classes at high school, with no study halls. He is dabbling in computers with a course in multi-media business class, working on Spanish and taking honors or advanced classes with all his other subjects. He also did soccer and marching band this fall and found that life suddenly became very, very busy. Mom and Dad had a hard time keeping up. Soccer was often during the week, but marching band filled the weekend with 8 different competitions over the course of two months. And the topic of discussion of late, sometimes brought up by him, has been college, majors and how to plan his high school life to fit his goals for college. o_OJoel: Continues to work on house projects. Jenn thought she would be clever this year and assign him a project, which was working on the front porch. He removed all the railings and columns, refurbished the wood, filled in or replaced damaged portions, repainted or replaced items with plastics that wouldn't rot and acquiesced to Jenn's request that the porch floor and steps be a red. He got lots of compliments on his work. He also got it done very quickly and started work on the carriage house that serves as our garage, much to Jenn's chagrin. He is attempting to shore up the sagging roof and bring in the side walls. He also is insulating and covering over the walls in the upper portion of the garage. This is in anticipation of creating an upstairs wood working shop. He needs to build a fourth wall and make sure the second story floor will hold his tools. Then we can park bikes downstairs and not be in Joel's woodworking way. Joel also maintains the household, dishes, dinner and laundry are done all the time and he also finds time to sub both during the school year and during summer school. He's very active in a local group for creating a warming house near a former skating pond that the community wants to bring back as a place for winter recreation. Once winter ramps up, he is setting up a community event at the pond with cross-country skiing, snowshoeing, and skating.
Jenn: Had a promotion at work. Really just a title change. She's still in charge of lots at work, but the title maybe better reflects what she's in charge of. She finds herself doing a lot of PR for the site. However the programs team she leads has helped create engaging activities that have brought in more people to the site. She was on the team that created a cycling experience on the site and she organized a high wheel and antique bike group to come out during the summer as part of promoting the new experience. It is a lot of work, but all the new experiences have garnered a 5% increase. She also had the opportunity to attend the International Association of Amusement Parks and Attractions. Her place of work is competing with these places for leisure time and it doesn't hurt to understand and learn from the competition. In addition to this, she served on a grant committee for Wisconsin's Art Council, was a grant reviewer for the Institute of Museum and Library Services, was chosen to do a peer review of a museum out West for the American Alliance of Museums, mentored students in on-line exhibit development for the University of Manchester, and was published in Ethnic Dress in the United States: A Cultural Encyclopedia. And in-between all that she attends soccer games, marching band performances, band performances, rides her bike, serves on the local bike advocacy board and does fiction writing in her spare time, including helping to set up a novel writing retreat in the spring. What?! When did she find time to do all that?
As always, we wish you a happy and healthy 2015! Jenn and Joel are looking at the year. This will be their 20th wedding anniversary this year! Maybe they'll cook up something interesting to celebrate.
Love, Jenn, Joel, Willem and Alice
